The Final Blog Post

Dear 811 and Ms. Galang

It’s the end of the year, and a lot has happened. We’ve all changed a lot and we have a whole year of new experiences to look back on. We’ve learned a lot, too. From book clubs, to poetry, to grammar lessons, to children’s books, to poetry, to Romeo and Juliet, we’ve covered a lot. And I’ve enjoyed most of it. My favorite experiences though, would probably be the poetry unit or the Romeo and Juliet unit. 

I really enjoyed the poetry unit. I felt like it allowed us a lot more freedom and personal expression than other units did. We got to learn about a variety of poetry and literary devices that really broadened our literary vocabulary. I think this unit helped us think a lot more about the world around us and about ourselves. I also really enjoyed reading other people’s poetry. Your all really good writers!

I’m also a really big fan of the Romeo and Juliet unit. When we first started it, I was prepared to hate it. I’ve never really been all that interested in Shakespeare and I thought Romeo and Juliet was very cliché and boring. However, reading the play as a class really helped me appreciate all the irony and beauty of Shakespeare’s writing.

With the end of this year, we start the beginning of high school, which holds a lot new possibilities. With all of these new reading and writing possibilities, there is a lot for me to hope for. I want to read a lot more, and care about what I read. Instead of quickly flipping through a book and moving on to the next one, I want to savor and appreciate what I’m reading. I also want to write a lot more. I want to write poetry and novels and anything else I can think of. I just want to broaden my horizons .

Overall, it’s been a great year. Some of you I’ll see again, and some I won’t. Whatever the case may be, I wish you the best of luck! 

Ideal Summer Bookshelf

-Cat’s Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

-Slaughter House Five - Kurt Vonnegut

-Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk

-In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

-A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

-Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

-Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

-Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

-Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

-Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky

-Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

-Grasshopper Jungle - Andrew Smith

-All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

-The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri

-The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

-The Secret History - Donna Tartt